ANCHOVIES!!!! ( Lemony Anchovy Pasta with Peas)

Yes my dear sweet pals, ANCHOVIES have brought me back to resuscitating this website that I had somewhat (entirely) abandoned roughly a year ago. Truthfully I felt like I started this site with good intentions of sharing as much as I could with you guys, but then I quickly felt like I had lost direction and it was just a mashup of random ass shit. Soooooo the good news is that I’M BACK BAAAAAABBBBIIIIEEEEESSSSSSS!!! And also that I plan to mostly just focus on cooking and the occasional outfit shot. Fashion and Food. They both start with F’s so that was enough direction for ol’ dumb dumb over here. ANYWAYSSSSSS……

ANCHOVIES!!! I love these weird, salty, melty little fish so so so much. I know they sound scary and maybe gross or you associate them with some bizarro canned fish that your mom used to eat solo on crackers. No? Only mine? I think thats what scarred me from childhood about eating these. But I’m a grown ass woman now and let me tell you – these bad boys are a game changer. I made the best pasta the other night, and that recipe will follow here. But I also used anchovies to make a fan-freaking-tastic popcorn topping. More on that too. But anyways, lets all nut up together an enjoy the fruits of the mer.

(I know I know I need to figure out the art of taking a great picture of my food – and I have a ring light currently en route to la casa de Good. But any tips you guys might have. PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!)

Alright here’s what you’ll need:

Salt

Anchovies in oil

3 tbsp Unsalted Butter

Lemon

Lemon rind

1 Cup freshly grated parmigiano

frozen peas

2 tsp freshly cracked pepper

A thicker pasta noodle of your choosing

LETS DO THIS.

1.) Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Salt this water. This is tres important. I just learned the importance of salting EVERYTHING and now I’m pretty much Giada DeLaurentiis, So I’d say roughly 2 palms full of salt added into the water. The water should taste more like the saltiness of the ocean- so do a little taste test. I never knew just how key this step was until I read Salt,Fat,Acid,Heat – GAME CHANGER!! Then add your pasta and cook to the instructions on the back for al dente. Usually 6-7 minutes.

2.) While your sweet delicious carby pals are doing their thing in your boiling ocean water, in a thicker sauce pan – cast iron skillet if you’re nasty, but whatever you have on hand. Over med-high heat add 3 Tablespoons of your unsalted butter to the pan, and then toss in 6 of your anchovy fillets. keep stirring and moving around the butter and anchovies to make sure they don’t burn. The anchovies will start to melt. LIKE MAGIC. And you’ll be left with the best umami-butter love child mixture. Now add in the 2 tsp of the fresh cracked black pepper. Truly – if you have the whole peppercorns and a mill – theres a pretty big difference between fresh cracked and just regular old ground pepper.

3.) While the sauce is doing its saucing – grate- on the second finest side of your grater – roughly 1 cup of the parmigiano. But add more if you want. It’s cheese. It’s def not gonna make your meal worse. Add this into the anchovy sauce.

4.) Now add in roughly 1/2 cup of the pasta water and thin it all out. This will also help the sauce bind to your noods.

5.) This sauce will continue to cook down, but we want it to stay pretty thin, so if you feel like you need to add more pasta water – follow your heart, bud. Now grab the lemon and add the zest of the entire thing. Then add half of the lemons juice to the sauce.

6.) Grab your frozen peas outta the icebox, toss em into the pasta sauce. toss em around for a few minutes till they’re cooked. They won’t take long.

7.) Drain your noods and add em right into the sauce pan and coat these suckers up. Feel free to add more pepper and or cheese.

Pour wine. a large goblet of it. And serve!!

So the cool thing about this dish is that a.) its super freaking easy. The lemon zest and peas adds a bit of unexpected freshness to the pasta. And the anchovies cooked down leave you with this amazing salty, savory umami-y sauce. But you can build on this dish and customize it super easily. Add in some shrimp, or tomatoes, fresh herbs, garlic, chili flakes. Tons of options!!